Service Agreement - Department of Health Tasmania: 2018, Elective Surgery - Percentage of all elective surgery patients seen within the clinically recommended time, 2018

Identifying and definitional attributes

Metadata item type:

Indicator

Indicator type:

Indicator

Short name:

All elective surgery patients seen within the clinically recommended time (percentage)

METeOR identifier:

698814

Registration status:

Tasmanian Health, Endorsed 28/03/2019

Description:

This indicator measures the percentage of elective surgery patients who are admitted to the hospital (or contracting hospital) and received their waiting list procedure within national benchmark waiting times.

Collection and usage attributes

Computation description:

The definitions applied are consistent with the national definitions used for reporting against the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services. The definitions include admission from the elective surgery waiting list where the planned procedure was completed. This also includes patients admitted for the waiting list as an emergency.

The number of waiting time days is calculated by subtracting the listing date for care from the removal date, minus any days the patient was 'not ready for care', and minus any days the patient was waiting with a less urgent clinical urgency category than their clinical urgency category at removal.

Indicator procedures as defined in the Tasmanian wait list procedure code (TWLPC) set and specify which procedures are included in the calculation of this indicator in accordance with national definitions.

The indicator is calculated all of the three urgency categories and presented as a percentage.

Computation:

100 x (Numerator ÷ Denominator)

Calculated for all urgency category

Numerator:

Total number of admissions from the elective surgery waiting list to the hospital (or contracting hospital) within benchmarks for each urgency category (this includes admissions from the waiting list as an emergency):

Clinical urgency category

National standards (desirable treatment times)

Category 1 - Urgent

Admission within 30 days (i.e. <= 30 days)

Category 2 - Semi-urgent

Admission within 90 days (i.e. <= 90 days)

Category 3 - Non-urgent

Admission sometime in the future

There is no national standard but 365 days is used as a guide (i.e. <= 365 days)

The number of days is calculated by subtracting the listing date for care from the removal date, minus any days when the patient was 'not ready for care', and also minus any days the patient was waiting with a less urgent clinical urgency category than their clinical urgency category at removal.

Days when the patient was not ready for care is calculated by subtracting the date(s) the person was recorded as 'not ready for care' from the date(s) the person was subsequently recorded as again being 'ready for care'.

If, at any time since being added to the waiting list for the elective surgical procedure, the patient has had a less urgent clinical urgency category than the category at removal, then the number of days waited at the less urgent clinical urgency category should be subtracted from the total number of days waited.

In cases where there has been only one category reassignment (i.e. to the more urgent category attached to the patient at removal) the number of days at the less urgent clinical urgency category should be calculated by subtracting the listing date for care from the category reassignment date. If the patient's clinical urgency was reclassified more than once, days spent in each period of less urgent clinical urgency than the one applying at removal should be calculated by subtracting one category reassignment date from the subsequent category reassignment date, and then adding the days together.

When a patient is removed from an elective surgery waiting list, for admission on an elective basis for the procedure they were awaiting, but the surgery is cancelled and the patient remains on or is placed back on the waiting list within the same hospital, the time waited on the list should continue.

Therefore at the removal date, the patient's waiting time includes the number of days waited on an elective surgery waiting list, both before and after any cancelled surgery admission. The time waited before the cancelled surgery should be counted as part of the total time waited by the patient.